Just saw the following tweet from BuySellDomains asking for suggestions on researching a domain before registering and thought it might make a useful micropost. Here are seven different tools I would start with – would be interested in any other sites/suggestions.

1. Check archive.org to see what the site was previously used for

2. Check previous owners using DomainTools.com historical WHOIS

3. Search common spam domain/ip blacklists
http://www.dnsgoodies.com/
http://www.moensted.dk/spam/
http://www.au.sorbs.net/

4. Search past UDRP decisions

5. Try the following Google/Yahoo/Bing searches….
– “[domain]”
– “[domain] spam”
– “[domain] sucks”

6. Run a link popularity search on the domain to see who links to it.

7. Run a free trademark search on the domain – be sure to omit the extension.